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GIRLS' SOCCER: Little Flower is on a Roll as They Pass By Carroll 4-0

By Kevin Murphy , 10/06/16, 11:45AM EDT

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PHILADELPHIA- Little Flower's new turf soccer field, located in the middle of Hunting Park, is a beautiful pitch that suits head coach Markos Pittaoulis's style of play as his team faced the Archbishop Carroll Patriots Monday afternoon. The Sentinels have been on quite a roll winning their last four games at home.

Led by head coach Frank Olszewski, the Patriots were confident coming into the game. Before the game, Olszewski said he felt as if the PCL title is “up for grabs this year.”

The game was end to end in the beginning of the first half. The teams were fighting for the first goal and what would be control of the game. Carroll seemed the aggressor as they tried to find the ball over the Sentinals’ back line. Little Flower withstood the early attacks as they tried to impose their style of football on the game. 

“We really play (with) the ball more but today they were nervous, the players, because they’re young. If you are young, I understand, but I really want to work on not being nervous at all and start passing the ball, and not lose the ball,” said Pittaoulis.

Keeping the ball on the ground, Little Flower (6-1 league), tried to break down Archbishop Carroll (4-4 league), by passing it through Carroll’s lines. Little Flower was stifled by Carroll’s defense until Sentinel Cailey Plath came up with a moment of brilliance to open the scoring near the middle of the half. Plath, a key goal scorer, gathered the ball at the top of the 18 and placed it over Carroll’s keeper and into the far corner to give the Sentinels a 1-0 lead.

“She’s the scorer on the team, everyone on the team depends on her, that’s why they send the ball to her. She’s a very good player,” said Pittaoulis.

Little Flower settled into the game after this goal and quickly doubled their lead. Passing it through Carroll, Sentinel Celeste O’Neil ran it behind the Carroll back line for a break away. One-on-one with the goalie, O’Neil passed it by the Patriot’s keeper making it 2-0 Little Flower going into the half.

Little Flower continued to dominate the field with their control, and movement of the ball. Olszewski tried to pull his team back into the game by putting defender Bella Sorrentino at striker. Little Flower’s possession remained intense for her to get a chance to test Sentinel’s keeper Natalie O’Neil.

The Sentinels went on to score two more times. Plath scored another goal, this time beating a Carroll defender along the end line to put her face to face with Carroll’s keeper. With practically an open net, Plath calmly passes it by the keeper to seal the win.

“They’ re a great team, Markos does a great job with them. They’re very technical. They pass the ball well. The first 12 to 15 minutes I was very pleased with the way things are going, and then they got that goal, a well-earned goal. And it kind of came against the run of play,” said Olszewski.

“We’re better then 4-0, but they earned the 4-0, because they stretched us out and took advantage of the early lead they got.”

Little Flower continues league action today at Conwell-Egan. Carroll is on the road against Archbishop Wood.